In modern vehicles, passive safety systems such as airbags are becoming increasingly dependent on data about vehicle occupants. The data is often used by the system to determine each occupant's seating position, mass, and center of gravity. Each occupant's weight is useful in making the determinations.
One method of measuring an occupant's weight is to place a force sensor in the load path between the vehicle floor and the seat structure. The force sensor then provides a signal indicative of a seat occupant's weight. Such sensors, as disclosed in Oestereicher et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,070,115, are undesirably tall and cause the seat structure to raise from its original position when the sensor is introduced in the load path. In order to return the seat structure to its original height, the seat base, the vehicle floor, or both, must then be redesigned to lower the seat height to its original level prior to introducing the sensor in the load path.